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water offering cabinet

Starting at: $1,975.00

Nice art work on this, our last water offering cabinet, the door has very intricate kyungbur outlining Durva grass in 24kt gold radiating out from longevity symbols in the corners; this surrounding a healthy leopard. The top center gallery has Cintamani flanked by elephant tusks. This is a specifically designed cabinet for the water offering; however as with all Tibetan furniture it has multiple usages. Atisha sanctioned the water offering for Tibet only when he visited there as he found that the water was so pure. These cabinets have been mistakenly identified as reading desks due to a photograph taken by Guicci that shows monks reading at them. When I asked the High Lama at the Lower Sange Monastery about this he laughed and stated how uncomfortable it would be to read at a desk like this (which was my though also). It has a single door, and the hinges are wood-dowels in the top and bottom edges that fit into a hole bored into the underside of the horizontal frame, with a tapered slot in the bottom frame-opening. This cabinet is made from Asian cedar and is painted on the front and the inside portions of the offering gallery using the raised gesso or kyungbur technique. The earliest known use of this technique is at the Wutun Monastery (we have carbon dated a piece to 1510 AD which is 200 years prior to the previous oldest piece) and the monastery is most probably the point of origin of this technique. The sides, top and back are a natural oil finish. The left galley has some damage to the kyungbur and painting. The top is pegged to the frame using bamboo and the planks have separated slightly. The left side at some point decades ago had some red paint spilled, covering a good portion of that side. Comes with a Certificate Of Authenticity.